General Description

The PMW3901MB-TXQT is PixArt Imaging's latest optical navigation chip designed with far field optics technology that enables navigation in the air. It is housed in a 28-pin chip-on-board (COB) package that provides X-Y motion information with a wide working range of 80 mm to infinity. It is most suitable for far field applications for motion detection.

Key Features

  • Wide working range from 80 mm to infinity
  • No lens focusing required during lens mounting process
  • Power consumption of <9mA @ run mode
  • 16-bit motion data registers
  • Motion detect pin output
  • Internal oscillator – no clock input needed

Applications

Devices that require far field motion detection, e.g.

  • Drone
  • Indoor and outdoor X-Y positioning, especially in GPS-

https://download.kamami.pl/p587092-pmw3901mb-txqt_-_productbrief_2451186_7.pdf

The PMW3901 is a crafty little sensor that uses a low-resolution camera and some clever algorithms to detect motion of surfaces. A great use for it is detecting and correcting for drift of a drone by looking for x/y motion of the ground below.

raspberry pi

Our library is set up to use SPI 0 on the Pi: BCM 8 for CS, BCM 11 for SCK, BCM 10 for MOSI, BCM 9 for MISO, and BCM 18 for the INT pin.

Here's which pins to connect between your Optical Flow Sensor Breakout and your Pi's GPIO (note that it's BCM pin numbering):

  • 3-5V to any 5V or 3V pin
  • CS to BCM 8
  • SCK to BCM 11
  • MOSI to BCM 10
  • MISO to BCM 9
  • INT to BCM 18
  • GND to any ground pin

library code

ref